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Thursday, May 7, 2009

Thursday, May 7, 2009

You can't blame these decorators, really; flowery cakes for Mother's Day can get a little boring.

I would say this baker got down to the heart of the matter, but that would be hitting above the belt. [smirk]

Oh, dear. You know, I've never watched the movie, but from the tiny bit I saw here I'm starting to wonder if this is really the best choice for a cake, on Mother's Day or ANY day.* Yikes. And why "Mommies"? Do two Moms get to share this psychotic little treat?

Here's a bakery that really knows the best way to honor Mom: by eating her face!

At least they provide lots of options to choose from, though, thereby increasing your odds of finding a Mommy Head that "looks just like her!" Woo woo!

Alison J. and Kelly D., I think for fun I'm going to get a head that looks as UNlike Mom as possible. Then I'll tell her I brought in a picture of her for the bakery to match, and act like I think they did a fab job. :)

*Actually, I looked it up, and this is listed as a "christening cake". Wow. Somehow, I think that makes it worse...

The 2nd cake is basically an anti-choice statement in pastry form. I assume it was a party for multiple moms/babies and that the person who ordered the cake thought that the most festive and important thing to say tp the mom was, "Thanks for not having an abortion."

Oh, and I can see where folks might take the coat hanger cake as an anti-abortion cake, but I think it's a reference to "No wire hangers! EVER!" from the movie Mommie Dearest. Creepy cake, whatever the meaning, though.

I especially like the sprinkles on the uterus cake. I mean, a plain uterus is simply not festive enough!

And the posters who are misinterpreting the 2nd cake have obviously missed the pop culture reference of "NO WIRE HANGERS!!!!!" Coupled with the "Mommie(s) Dearest" reference its hard to miss if you know your Hollywood Legends.

Cake #2 is not about abortion! The wire hanger scene is from Mommie Dearest, the movie (and maybe the book too, I haven't read it.)Sometimes my mom and I joke about her being "Mommie Dearest" (she's no where near it, but has a good sense of humor,) but I don't think I'd ever get her that cake. I would, however, spring for the female anatomy cake. I love that!

Let's not get this into a political or moral debate, here - that cake has NOTHING to do with abortion - check Jen's link to the movie - "no wire hangers, ever!" is a famous line from Mommie Dearest about how to hang up your clothes (designer bag tie-in here)! - and in saying that, the cake is creepy in its own right as the movie is about how the mentally deranged Mommie abused her adopted child so why make a cake about that? Abortion cake - not, child abuse cake - OK.Soap box - off...

ok...so I haven't watched mommy dearest but I went and looked it up since it seems cake 2 is a reference to that and not some sort of abortion reference.

Either way it's too confusing. Are they saying keep abortion legal to avoid hangers but have the baby, see this one is cute?

or is it a ref to mommy dearest despite the baby being a BABY not a child and if you were going to make a ref to the movie scene, wouldn't you do better with a dress ON a wire hanger, not a no wire hangers sign ON a baby?

So, did anyone else see a steer's head in the first cake? it took me a minute to see it, ahem..properly. and then I couldn't believe that's what i was seeing and it took me a minute more to really believe my eyes. INTERNAL ANATOMY SHOULD NOT BE IN CAKE FORM! EVER!

I'm curious if Jen actually knows is the coat hanger is a Mommie Dearest movie reference or a "thanks for not aborting me" reference. It could be either, honestly.

But, here's what I really don't get about the cake. The baby is in a Loius Vuitton bag. Why? Secondly, the graphic on the t-shirt looks HORRIBLE compared to the rest of the cake. It looks to me like someone went in after the fact maybe and added it.

The first cake? I'm not even going there. Hell, I'm so niave,I couldn't figure out what it was at first.

Ah, thank you Cake Wrecks commenters for solving the mystery (to me) of the wire hanger. The Mommie Dearest reference sounds correct, even if it still looks odd.

Anyone else have flashbacks to the U Texas Longhorns cake when he/she looked at the ovary cake? You know you've been reading CW too long when the first thing you think of when you look at a part of anatomy is, "Oh, remember that wrecked sports / school logo?"

And the mommy head cakes remind me of a traumatic experience as a tot trying to replace a doll I got for Christmas that broke upon opening the box (IIRC the head popped off). I threw a hissy fit until my poor mom found the last one that could kind of sort of look like me (yeah, I was quite the narcissist at age 3, but I'm over that now ;)). I'm willing to be she still remembers that and would enjoy giving me one of these cakes when/if I celebrate a Mother's Day of my own.

Whoa.That first one, um. Is that what I unfortunately imagined it to be as soon as I saw it?

Second.I thought it was just "Mommie Dearest" (decorator, get the title right, would ya, sheesh) and Joan Crawford is Scary (Faye Dunaway did a good job if you ask me). Of course I said the famous line out loud as soon as I saw the pic: "No More Wire Hangers!!!!"

I am loving the fact that the ovary/uterus cake as SPRINKLES!! ROFL. And I totally found my mom amidst the head cakes! YES!As for wreck #2...umm...yeah, movie reference aside, it makes no sense at all.

WV: unyto...as in...YOU NEED TO read the links and at least SOME of the comments before posting your own...really.

That reproductive system cake is a RIOT!! It's actually accurate enough to use to have "the talk" with my 9 year old daughter - how better to open a discussion than with cake!WV: ardic - I guess I'll have to put that in the talk, too...

I cannot think of an event in which internal organs are a sensible choice for a cake (well, except that surgeon's convention, but even still...couldn't you do something clever with a gurney or some gauze?)

The second one? I at first thought of the totally tasteless option, too -- but even the movie tie-in is bizarre, and pretty tasteless. Wow, glad you're my moms, even if one or both of you are mentally ill, egomaniacal, alcoholic child abusers! Woo. Now THERE's a warm and fuzzy sentiment for ya.

The real tragedy is that it's a well-done cake -- and would be considered as anything BUT a wreck if it didn't have that ill-advised hanger on it.

Like many others I thought the second cake was making an abortion statement.And I'd just like to say "Mommie Dearest" is a good movie in the same vein as "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" If you didn't get enough stress in between work, people with road rage, and swine flu then either movie should keep you properly rattled for an hour or so. Guess it's what my old film professor would call "a hard watch".

When I saw all the mommy face cakes I couldn't help singing "Red and yellow black and white, They are precious in His sight." It's so funny to me that they made them all races and hair colours but they're all "Labeled" Yellow!

@ TracyO - trust me food causes a bit of a distraction! When our sixth grade class had to watch the video about reproduction the mother made pancakes for her daughter in the shape of a uterus and ovaries and was explaining the whole process over a steaming griddle. We all laughed so hard we completely missed the gist of the film. Of course this was back in the 80's so maybe today's kids are better equipped to make the reproduction/food link.

Geez people, if you'd read Jen's commentary, you'd know what the cake was about (and really, if you're skipping the commentary, then you're missing the best part of this blog). If you'd read some dang comments, you'd know what the cake was about. Everyone's so click happy to comment, lol! It's definitely NOT an anti-abortion cake.

Being pregnant; the reproductive system cake made me laugh, and almost pee. And they anti abortion cake...I'm not understanding the LV bag...and seriously do people still use hangers in THIS country?Then we have the heads...I'm reading the book STIFF right now by Mary Roach, all I could think about was the first chapter when she watches surgeons practice plastic surgery on decapitated cadaver heads.

Oh my...those heads...Well, I don't know for SURE, but they look like leftover Easter egg cakes...and I know when I worked as a cake decorator, we'd try to use up as much of the excess holiday shape cakes as possible after the holiday. We even used Valentine's hearts for Mother's Day.

As I scrolled down, I saw a cake with a baby, with a "no" sign over a hanger, and immediately thought it was some crazy anti-abortion message. Then I got down to the inscription and realized it was a reference to Joan Crawford.

But that's not really better: it references a scene where a mother brutally beats a kid of about seven with a wire coathanger. Happy Mother's Day!

oh gosh... I just noticed the "ridge detail" in the uhm...special area of the first cake...way way way way WAY too much! I can't believe it!

oh and now I see the "no wire hangers" reference...but it is all confusing with the bag and it being a baby and I'm just still nost sure that's what they actually meant...maybe it's a play on, ya know like "oh that's a great concept for an anti-abortion cake." Even thought it's not.

Actually, the "no coat hanger" symbol represents pro-choice, not anti-abortion. But nobody in their right mind would put that symbol on a christening cake if they knew that so it must just be a reference to the movie instead. Either way, it's in very bad taste.

I thought the second cake was about abortion at first, and then I saw the comments about the movie. I'm not quite sure what meaning to take from it now, but either way it's inaprops and tacky and wrong on so many levels.

I dunno... the uterus cake kind of grabs me - you know - in a maternal way. Is it the cute yellow ovaries? The sweet pink fallopian tubes? The copious sprinkles that look like wayward sperm? The ridged vag... vag... vag... nevermind! I guess it's the whole concept. So lovingly iced and tasty looking.

1) There is a wire coat hanger reference in the movie "Mommy Dearest" that has nothing to do with abortion when the mom screams "No wire coat hangers, ever!" and goes into a psychotic rage. It is probably the films most famous scene

2) The coat hanger with the slash through it is a PRO-CHOICE statement, often accompanied by the slogan "Keep abortion safe and legal." Meaning, as pro-lifers make it more and more difficult and taboo to get an abortion, women are turning to dangerous "home remedies" like using a coat hanger to perform the abortion themselves.

Maybe my family is totally nuts, but my mother would laugh hysterically at the Mommie Dearest cake. No, child abuse isn't funny, but that movie is unintentionally hilarious (or is it intentional?), and we used to watch it all the time. The "no wire hangers!" symbol on the baby is killing me, and for some reason, the fact that it's an LV bag also amuses me. Love it.

To the people complaining about people seeing the "thanks for not aborting me" message in the 2nd cake... Yes, we *know* it's not about abortion. We *know* it's about the movie Mommie Dearest. The point is, the illustration leaves itself open to the obvious allusion to abortion, thus making the cake a totally tasteless wreck on multiple levels.

Actually folks, it's a pro-legal abortion symbol (worth adding: it's based on perjured court testimony, the premise of which has been debunked by at least two high-ranking insiders). I imagine the person the cake was intended for got the reference, but anywhere else this would be a pretty major gaffe.

The uterus cake seems more appropriate for a mother to give her child/ren. Instead of I <3 you, it says I uterus you... like I conceived you, gestated you and gave birth to you and if that doesn't say love, I don't know what does.

But it doesn't really work for adopted children.

And there has to be a cake for moms with their tubes tied and some blank ones for moms who have had a hysterectomy.

Or maybe a uterus with a big red circle around it and a line through it... that would work for adoptive mothers AND mothers who have had hysterectomies!

Those first two wrecks are just horrible. Who, in their right mind, would buy a cake like that, let alone give it to their mother. So children of mine who read this BLOG beware, no uterine cakes for this mother, okay?

I agree with the comment suggesting the second cake is missing an apostrophe - as in "mommie's dearest" things are her baby and her designer purse. The coat hanger is a tacky tie in to the play on words of the movie title. Tacky all around!

Clearly, they decided to write "Mommies Dearest" on the cake and then, in an attempt to be funny, they added the "no wire hangers" thing from the movie. But it's still weird, creepy, tasteless, etc., and could be misunderstood very easily...That's why it's a Cake Wreck, folks!

Joan Crawford would beat her daughter if she hung her clothes on wire hangers, screaming "No Wire Hangers." So the phrase has come to be synonymous with mean Mommie Dearest, which is what Joan insisted Christina call her. And I find the use of the term "anti-choice" very interesting. If aborted, the baby obviously has no choice in the matter..........I find anti-life much more accurate.

Tracy O said... "That reproductive system cake is a RIOT!! It's actually accurate enough to use to have "the talk" with my 9 year old daughter..." **************

Have fun with that!I can see it /hear it now (as the girl half-listens while her eyes wander hungrily over the cake):"Uterus thing, tubes things--Yeah, Mom. OKAY, Mom. I GET it, Mom!Now, can I PLEASE have an ovary???"

If the second cake is for a same sex couple, it could conceivably be referring to adoption, what with that bag?

I saw the movie and read the book and I still thought "abortion." Having the movie reference back in my brain isn't changing that. I'm seeing it as an intricate twist USING the movie line to make an anti abortion statement...

(To other posters who noted this: yeah, an apostrophe in "mommie's" would make it cleverer, I think.)

Whatevs, I'm still cringing.

(I've no real objections to cakes 1 and 2. But they do make me laugh.)

OMG. No WIRE HANGERS EVER. And "Mommie Dearest" on the cake. It's referencing the movie Mommie Dearest about Joan Crawford. Not abortion. Good golly. Maybe it's a generational thing, I don't know. But I'm always amazed at the number of people who don't get cultural references (The Godfather, Mommie Dearest....)

My mom would totally crack up at that cake. I've been known to call her 'Mommie Dearest' when doing work for her, albeit in a funny way. She knows I'm joking, just like when I call her the Anal Retentive Chef (old Phil Hartman/SNL character people). But then again, she has a sense of humor.

The horrible mother - the one who would scream at a child about using the wrong hangers - made the choice not to keep the child. Instead of aborting the baby, she delivered her (in a LV bag, no less) to a lovely lesbian couple, who adopted her. And now they celebrate with cake.

Soooo...After Mother's Day is over, I see a potential market for all of the ugly head cakes that didn't sell (of which there could be many)!They can put them out for those who like to celebrate the French Revolution.Vive la France!(Or, rather, "Off with their heads!")=^(.)(.)^=

Woah -- the first one is half woman's reproductive organs, half Texan Longhorn logo; the second one is not only offensive, but who tf would want to eat that? I am glad the kid knew well enough that it wasn't aborted and could thank its multiple mommies for the favor.

I would like to hereby state that I am more than just a uterus. And that my duties to my daughter actually truly began when she was born. And if she gets me a uterus cake, I may throw it at her. Especially with the sprinkles acting like...something.

As for cake #2. It could be either Mommies or Mommie's. And while the coat hanger, either way it was meant, is just ridiculous, it's the bag that gets me. Huh? Is it supposed to actually read :I love Mommie's Darlings? What. I got nothing here.

They were apparently trying to tie in with the "Mommie Dearest" legend by having a "no wire hangers ever" symbol, but the first thing I thought of-- and you all agree, too-- was a coat hanger abortion, which is a totally disturbing and inappropriate image for a baby cake.

Nancy, I too thought it was a Chicago Bulls logo. So you were clearly not the only one....Now, the notion of ovaries on a bull just makes me think of one of my co-workers, to whom we refer as "t-ts on a bull" for his general level of usefulness.

Leaving aside the politics of the 2nd cake, the bit that blew my mind was the freakin' HANDBAG. Is this a stork reference--and what self-respecting stork can afford to deliver babies in Louis Vuitton bags?

A uterus with sparkly sprinkles. Hmmm. I did not notice the coat hanger reference on cake #2 because I was busy trying to figure out the handles on that bag: some kind of freaky tail? a bizarre arm? When I did finally notice it was a bag, I wasn't done figuring: Why is the baby ON TOP of the bag, not in it? Why is the bag there at all?

You know, as an infertile, I really like that first cake. It's just the kind of sarcasm I'd have appreciated before we had the kids!

I assumed that the coat hanger thing was a reference to Mommy Dearest, not abortion? Just a guess. And why can't "mommies" be lesbians? That seems obvious to me...after all, otherwise wouldn't it say "we"? Also, it could be birthmommy and mommy. I'm the first to jump to that conclusion, though I'm not sure the whole cake screams that as a likely possibility.

Love the first one! Yes, it looks like a steer's head; gives it a friendly appearance. Y'know, home on the uterine range and all... What I like the best about it is how the sprinkles make those ovaries look all sparkly.

I would actually get the Mommie Dearest cake for my mother (who'd probably love it - although she'd want to correct the extraneous 's'). XD She and I both love that movie, and make a lot of joking references to it that are doubtless in terrible taste but that's the fun of then.

And of course on my next birthday she'd retaliate with a The Bad Seed cake... maybe the little blond girl sitting on a pink electric chair?

Even if the second cake is supposed to be a reference to that movie, the wire hangers emblem is really misleading.. I used to have a pro-choice button that looked identical to that (a hanger crossed out) so people can be forgiven for mistaking it for an abortion reference. Wouldn't there be a better way to reference the movie without making an ambiguous abortion statement?

Also -- to all the commenters -- why don't you actually read Jen's posts and click on the links she includes with the posts? She already knows about the Mommie Dearest reference; that's why she LINKED to it IN THE POST. Sorry to yell, but so many of you are saying "Hmm, I wonder if Jen knows that's a reference to Mommie Dearest?" and "Thanks to the commenters for explaining the second cake to me!"

I don't read the comments to every post, but it seems like this is Epcot all over again... Is the comments section always so oblivious to what Jen actually wrote? She's pretty smart; I'm guessing she gets the references in 99.9% of the cakes she writes about, and if there's a reference she doesn't recognize, there's this thing called Google that I'm sure she uses regularly. I don't know why people automatically assume she's totally clueless about everything.

sendinthenewclowns said Soooo... After Mother's Day is over, I see a potential market for all of the ugly head cakes that didn't sell (of which there could be many)!They can put them out for those who like to celebrate the French Revolution.Let them eat cake heads?

WV: caliced. Caliced the cake beautifully, but the wreckorator still messed up the inscription.

I am grealy disappointed that you posted the "Mommies Dearest" cake with the coat hanger symbol on it. It was in very, very poor taste that it was made to begin with, and it certainly wasn't anything that I wanted to see on your site. I look here every day for a laugh, and that certainly is not remotely entertaining.

SICK!! I love it! We've used that line for years every time our pants get wrinkled while hanging in the closet. Wonder if that baker does Father's Day cakes .... or even better yet, Grandparents Day! Now there's fodder for deep seated psychoses!

Hee- I've got my mom sold on a uterus cake for mothers day... also? Mommie dearest cake was in sorta poor taste, but I get the joke. (Then again, I also got Joan Crawford movies for my on mom for her birthday. The tag said... "To Mommie Dearest." We laughed our arses off.)

Ohhhhh the wire coat hangers=Mommie Dearest! I love that movie, but totally missed the No More Wire Hangers reference...I too thought it was abortion...at first glance I thought it was the Ghostbusters ghost wearing a NO symbol, then I thought it was a no smoking symbol, then I thought it was a choking hazard symbol so baby can't get strangled by a hanger.

I love the uterus cake! It could be worse... maybe an endometriosis cake, or a ovarian cyst cake, or a hysterectomy cake (well, that one would probably look the same, but with a circle and a slash). Maybe we'll get a diagram of the male (internal) sexual anatomy. A piece of vas deferens for everyone!

I swore off reading comments after the Epcot controversy (which was entertaining yet tiresome), but I was hoping someone would have an answer about why the hanger baby is in a handbag. Instead, it's Pop Culture Knowledge Wars Part II in here! I guess I'll jump into the fray: I agree the cake is most likely referring to the movie, but without the text there is more evidence for it to point to a statement about abortion. Either way, it's as spectacularly wrecky and tasteless as you can possibly get!

Yanno, the more I think about it, the more weird that 'christening cake' gets. Here we are to dedicate this child to God, to make them a member of the church...and mom's LV handbag ranks right up there next to the infant???? Is that materialistic or what? That would bother me far more (as a statement about me) than would the uterine cake.

It took me a minute to figure out that first one, because I couldn't believe what I was seeing.I actually kind of like the head cakes. I would be kind of happy if someone gave me a cake of my face. is that weird?

And yes - we get that in the movie, Mommy Dearest, she doesn't want her to have wire hangers - BUT - it's an infant....in a bag....and it DOES say momMIES....plural....I still say it's even funnier as an adoptive kid thanking his birth and adoptive moms...

Re: Cake #2I can actually see this cake being both a reference to Mommie Dearest and to abortion (whether pro-choice or anti-choice, I honestly can't tell). Is there some rule that states that the two references can't be incorporated together in pastry form? I see pro-choice T-shirts with the iconic quote "No More Wire Hangers," so obviously SOMEBODY is tying the two together.

It's the Louis Vuitton bag that's totally throwing me, though.

@Angela:Might I offer some advice to you? If you think the commenters here are so stupid, perhaps you should not read the comments. Just an idea, of course.

OMGOSH! I love the 'no wire hangars' cake. Too funny! I *loved* that movie when I was a little girl. However, even to this day, when I hang my husbands pants on wire hangars, I always think "NO WIRE HANGARS... EVER!"

FTR, I have 5 kids, soon to be 6 - and I've never abused any of them.... and to my knowledge, even the older ones have not seen that movie.

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